Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In today’s video, we’re going
to be discussing Voldemort, the Gaunt Family, Tom Riddle Sr., and love potions. More specifically,
we’re going to be discussing Voldemort’s relationship with his mother/father, and trying
to decipher whether or not Voldemort was aware of the fact that his father was a victim.
It certainly shouldn’t be news to anyone that Voldemort hated his parents. His mother,
unable to continue without the love of his father, left young Voldemort at Wool’s orphanage
shortly before dropping dead. She died of a broken heart- but from Voldemort’s perspective
(the perspective of someone unable to FEEL love)- she was a coward that abandoned him-
something that he would forever resent her for.
But Voldemort’s relationship with his father wasn’t so good either. You see, when Merope
was pregnant, Tom Riddle Sr abandoned them and travelled back to his home in Little Hangleton.
He wanted nothing to do Merope, nor their unborn child. As an adult, Voldemort would
commonly refer to his ‘filthy muggle father’. He even went as far as changing his name just
so that he would no longer have any association with him:
"You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father’s name forever? I, in whose veins
runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother’s side? I, keep the name
of a foul, common Muggle, who abandoned me even before I was born”
Ok- so Voldemort hated his father for abandoning his mother. But, one thing that I’ve always
wondered is: Did he know that his father was actually a VICTIM? In case you weren’t aware,
Merope Gaunt developed an obsession with Tom Riddle Sr while they were both living in the
town of Little Hangleton. However, rather than pursuing him by traditional means, she
instead concocted a love potion that she gave to him. After drinking the love potion, Tom
Riddle Sr became infatuated with Merope- and it was AFTER he drank the potion that the
two conceived a child. It wasn’t until either a. Merope stopped giving it to him or b. That
the potion simply wore off, that Tom Riddle Sr finally realized his circumstance- fleeing
home in order to get away from the witch that had tricked him. I don’t think you can exactly
blame him here.
So- my question is, did Voldemort KNOW this? Would this change anything? Or would he have
killed and hated him anyway?
First things first- I think that Voldemort IMMEDIATELY valued his mother over his father
(regardless of any extenuating circumstances) purely because he was a muggle and she was
a witch. Voldemort had it in his mind essentially right from birth that muggles were ‘dirty’
and that only pure-blood witches and wizards were worthy of..well, existence.
However, with that said- I think that if we pay close attention to the following quote
(the same one from earlier) we should able to reasonably deduce that NO, Voldemort did
not know that his father was a victim:
“You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name forever? I, in whose
veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother's side? I, keep
the name of a foul, common Muggle, who abandoned me even before I was born, just because he
found out his wife was a witch”
That last part ‘just because he found out his wife was a witch?’ sticks out to me,
because it reveals that- from VOldemort’s perspective- the only reason that Tom Riddle
Sr left Merope was because her magical heritage had been revealed. When, in reality, Riddle
Sr left Merope because he had realized that he was the victim of a love potion.
With all of that said, however, I’m not sure that this would have made any difference
in his decision to kill his father, nor would it have provided him with any sympathy. I
say this because Voldemort was raised in an era where men would not have typically been
viewed as potential victims of this type of assault. I think that if Voldemort became
aware of what had truly happened to his father, he would have hated him even more. Not only
would Voldemort have seen him as a filthy muggle and a deserter, he also would have
seen him as ‘weak’.
What do you guys think? Did you ever think about this? Let me know in the comment section
below
Until next time
It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live